Dam megaprojects are being strongly resisted by local communities worldwide since they mean the loss of their lands and forests, and their forced displacement. In Thailand massive protests have been organized to halt this kind of projects undertaken in the name of "progress" (see WRM Bulletin 22).
Bulletin articles
The Philippines archipelago was once covered by dense tropical forests. Nowadays only 3% of them survive and even those are mostly degraded. Less than 1% of the former forest is still in a pristine state. Primary forests, left in only tiny patches, still exist in remote mountain regions on Palawan island, Mindoro and Mindanao and in the mountain range in northeastern Luzon called "Sierra Madre."
A forum took place in the northern region of Costa Rica on September 16-17 to reflect on and analyse the experiences regarding secondary forests and tree plantations developed in that region. Participants in the event included government officials, professional foresters, peasant organizations, forestry companies and environmental organizations. The Northern Region, which is affected by a severe process of deforestation is at the same time the area with more extensive tree monocultures (gmelina, teak, laurel and "terminalia") in the country.
Just one year after the destructive arrival of hurricane Mitch, Honduras is suffering the consequences of storms and flooding that have provoked the evacuation of thousands of peasants and the death of eight people until now. Hundreds of homes and crops have been destroyed. The media reproduce tragic images of suffering people and emphasize in the fury of nature as a cause of such disasters.
A recent publication on the effects of forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon shows that selective logging followed by the use of the logged area for agriculture and cattle raising is resulting in much more than just forest degradation.
The Mapuche people, who inhabit the southern region of Chile, have been historically victims of social and cultural exclusion. The invasion of their territories by huge plantation companies -with the support of the state- has resulted in the destruction of large areas of forests and their substitution by pine and eucalyptus monocultures. The Mapuche have recently increased their struggle, demanding effective solutions to the Chilean state, which after decades of complete indiference with regard to this conflict has now reacted through a combination of repression and charitable aid.
From the Spanish Conquest onwards, the Colombian Pacific Region has been subject to the relentless extraction of its natural resources -such as gold, clay, balsam and several precious woods- in a process that did not generate any benefits to local people. When big logging companies entered the region in the sixties, a period of social, cultural, economic and environmental devastation started.
The recent resolution of the Colombian government, in agreement with the U'wa leaders, according to which their legally recognized territory was increased in 120,000 hectares -now comprising 220,275 hectares- was celebrated as a great victory. Nevertheless, the consideration by the Ministry of the Environment of a request of environmental license for exploratory drilling by Occidental Petroleum just outside the newly created Unified U'wa Reservation is a pending menace on them (see WRM Bulletin 26).
The environmental NGO Accion Ecologica, with headquarters in Quito and working in several locations of Ecuador has been accused of being involved in the recent kidnappings of eight oil company technicians that occured near Lago Agrio in the Amazonian region of the country. This organization has released the following statement:
Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) has recently signed a letter of intent to participate in a tree plantation project promoted by the state agency State Forests of New South Wales, Australia, allegedly as part of its efforts to tackle global warming. New South Wales established a legal right last November on carbon sequestered from plantations. State forestry bodies in Australia have been looking to market their projects as sinks in the newly created "carbon offsets market" by the Kyoto Protocol. Such initiative is not the only one in the push of Australia to enter this market.
In 1997 Friends of Hamakua -a local NGO- together with local farmers and community organizations successfully resisted a project of Prudential Insurance Co.and Oji/Paper Marubeni to set up a big eucalyptus plantation and a pulp mill in the Big Island of Hawaii. The project was finally rejected by the Hawaiian authorities (see WRM Bulletins 3 and 7).